Deprivation play same music festival as Iron Maiden and Megadeth

Nearly 20 years later they took part in German music festival Wacken Open Air alongside some of the biggest bands in the world.

"You're sitting down eating lunch and the bass player from Iron Maiden would be sitting at the table across from you," Mr Harrison said of his time at the metal festival.

"Then someone from Megadeth would walk past you. Celebrities galore and you're trying to hold your tongue and not act like a fanboy in front of them."

So how did it come to be that a group of budding musicians from Orange made it to this point?

Well, they had to win the right to travel half-way across the world.

The first battle of the bands took place in Canberra - where the majority of the group is now based.

After beating out acts from across the ACT and NSW, they were pitted against eight of the best from around Australia during an event in Sydney.

Fair to say Mr Harrison - who is the lone Deprivation member still based in Orange - was delighted when told the news they'd taken home the win.

"It was mad," he said.

"I found out the next morning and I was getting in my car after a fairly big night and was feeling a bit sorry for myself. Then we got the phone call and it was pretty overwhelming."

This left the group one-and-a-half months between winning the competition and heading over to Europe for the festival.

They managed to raise the necessary funds and flew over a couple of days before it all kicked off.

They hired a campervan from Belgium to sleep in and store their gear, then drove nine hours to the festival location in Germany.

Once there, it was anything but smooth sailing.

"They had the heaviest rain they'd ever had at the festival," Mr Harrison said.

"We rock up at 10.30pm and there's just mud everywhere."

The number of tickets were reduced from 80,000 to 20,000 due to safety concerns and the band had to wait in line for five hours until they could enter the site.

"Tractors were towing us in there," the guitarist added.

After having the "time of their life" during the opening day of the event, it was Deprivation's turn to take to the stage come day two.

With the mud having dried up, the boys from the Central West were able to play in front of a few thousand metalheads.

"Because we're all spread across NSW and Canberra, we don't really get that much practice time, but it all came together really well and we had some great feedback afterwards from some of the bigger bands," Mr Harrison said.

"A lot of warm and fuzzy feelings all over."

After their set was over, the band was able to take a deep breath, relax and enjoy watching some of their favourite groups up close and personal.

"It's going to be memories forever," Mr Harrison added.

Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens.

Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.